AUTHORITIES are using statistical “tricks” and misleading test results to hide lead, cadmium, sulphur dioxide and arsenic poisoning caused by the Port Pirie smelter, a scientific study has found.

Lead author Professor Mark Taylor, of Macquarie University, told The Advertiser that scientists had spent 18 months studying how pollution and health statistics were manipulated and ignored, and that the Enviroment Protection Authority had refused to respond to their findings.

“The EPA in SA doesn’t want to talk about it. They should be forced to do so,’’ he said.

“This is a flagrant disregard for the interests of public health over the needs of industry.”

The study, by four environmental scientists at the Macquarie in Sydney and the University of Arizona, has been published in scientific journal Aeolian Research. It finds that:

POISONING by arsenic, cadmium and sulphur have been left out of the smelter licensing conditions between the owner Nyrstar and the State Government, which only polices lead poisoning.

CHILDREN’S lead levels are manipulated by SA Health to record fewer instances of poisoning.

POLLUTION levels of lead are played down by the EPA by using statistics from the two monitoring stations furthest from the smelter.

BLOOD contamination in children showing high levels of lead are mixed with those of parents by SA Health to water down the results.

FALSE information about old contamination in soil at Port Pirie is used to cover up current air pollution.

POLLUTION and health testing is more comprehensive in other Australian towns with smelters, such as Mt Isa.

Professor Taylor said pollution levels were also ignored by the EPA when it used “rolling averages” which ignored the number of daily spikes, which were up to five times the national standard.

His paper concludes that SA Health is using “tricks with statistics, downplaying the extent of the Port Pirie blood lead problem”.

“It could easily be argued that the publication of Port Pirie environmental and human data is constructed either ‘accidentally on purpose’ or even perhaps deliberately to downplay, mislead and obfuscate the facts about the extent, magnitude and frequency of the problem,’’ he told The Advertiser.

The State Government refused to comment on the findings, instead referring them to SA Health.

The study also found SA Health minimised the high levels of lead poisoning in children by using readings from mothers when the children had not yet reached their first birthday, watering down the results.

Professor Taylor said Port Pirie residents had a far higher rate respiratory illnesses than other Australians.

“Figures from 2007/2008 show that the Port Pirie City district area had hospital separations for respiratory illness at a rate of 3774 per 100,000 population, compared with 2036 per 100,000 population for the remainder of South Australia,’’ he said.

Professor Taylor’s report underwent a “peer review” process prior to publishing. Three other scientists were co-authors and another three experts, including the journal editor, verified the findings. Professor Taylor has published 100 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.

He said high lead blood levels were played down by SA Health because it only used the most recent test on each child when recording how many incidences of lead poisoning had happened during the year.

This meant that multiple tests showing a number of high lead levels in children were excluded, reducing the total number of positive results.

In a written response Director of Public Health Dr Kevin Buckett confirmed this. “The reports compile each child’s most recent test result to give the most up-to-date picture of the current situation,’’ he wrote.

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